Chapter 4

Virtualized Data Center Compute

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Compute Virtualization

Virtualization Layer

x86 Architecture

NIC Card Memory Hard Disk

CPU

Compute virtualization is a technique of masking or

abstracting the physical hardware from the operating
system and enabling multiple operating systems to run
concurrently on a single or clustered physical machine(s).
This technique encapsulates an operating system and an
application into a portable virtual machine (VM).

A virtual machine is a logical entity that looks and behaves

like a physical machine. Each operating system runs on its
own virtual machines.

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In compute virtualization, a virtualization layer resides
between the hardware and virtual machine (on which an
operating system is running). The virtualization layer is
also known as hypervisor. The hypervisor provides
standardized hardware resources (for example: CPU,
Memory, Network, etc.) to all the virtual machines.

• Enables creation of multiple virtual machines (VMs),

each running an OS and application

➢ VM is a logical entity that looks and behaves

like physical machine

• Virtualization layer resides between hardware and

VMs

➢ Also known as hypervisor

• VMs are provided with standardized hardware

resources

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Need for Compute Virtualization

Traditionally, one operating system (OS) per compute

system (physical machine) is deployed because the operating
system and the hardware are tightly coupled and cannot be
separated. Only one application is deployed per compute
system to minimize the potential resource conflict. This
causes organizations to purchase new physical machines for
every application they deploy, resulting in expensive and
inflexible infrastructure. Further, these compute systems
remain underutilized - it is very common to find compute
systems running at 15 – 20% utilization. This compounding
over many machines within a Classic Data Center (CDC)
leads to poor utilization of physical machines.

Compute virtualization enables to overcome these

challenges by allowing multiple operating systems and
applications to run on a single physical machine. This
technique significantly reduces acquisition cost and
improves utilization.

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Before Virtualization After Virtualization

• Runs single operating system • Runs multiple operating systems

(OS) per machine at a time (OSs) per machine
• Couples s/w and h/w tightly concurrently
• May create conflicts when • Makes OS and applications h/w
multiple applications run on the independent
same machine • Isolates VM from each other, hence
• Underutilizes resources no conflict
• Is inflexible and expensive • Improves resource utilization
• Offers flexible infrastructure at low
cost

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Hypervisor

Hypervisor is a compute virtualization software that enables

multiple operating systems (OSs) to run on a physical
machine concurrently. The hypervisor interacts directly with
the physical resources of the x86 based compute system. The
hypervisor is a key component of data center consolidation
efforts. By nature, it allows multiple operating systems and
applications to reside on the same physical machine.

Hypervisor has two key components: kernel and Virtual

Machine Monitor (VMM).

1. A hypervisor kernel provides the same functionality

as other operating systems, such as process creation,
file system management, and process scheduling. It is
designed to specifically support multiple virtual

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 machines and to provide core functionalities, such as
resource scheduling, I/O stacks, etc.

2. The Virtual Machine Monitor is responsible for

actually executing commands on the CPUs and
performing Binary Translation (BT). A Virtual
Machine Monitor abstracts hardware to appear as a
physical machine with its own CPU, memory, and I/O
devices. Each virtual machine is assigned a Virtual
Machine Monitor that has a share of the CPU,
memory, and I/O devices to successfully run the
virtual machine. When a virtual machine starts
running, the control is transferred to the Virtual
Machine Monitor, which subsequently begins
executing instructions from the virtual machine.

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Types of Hypervisor

Hypervisors are categorized into two types: hosted

hypervisor and bare-metal hypervisor.

Type 1 (Bare-metal hypervisor): In this type, the

hypervisor is directly installed on the x86 based hardware.
Bare-metal hypervisor has direct access to the hardware
resources. Hence, it is more efficient than a hosted
hypervisor.

Type 2 (Hosted hypervisor): In this type, the hypervisor is

installed and run as an application on top of an operating
system. Since it is running on an operating system, it
supports the broadest range of hardware configurations.

A hypervisor is the primary component of virtualization

that enables compute system partitioning (i.e. partitioning
of CPU and memory). In this course, we will focus on type
1 hypervisors because it is most predominantly used within
Virtualized Data Center (VDC).

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Benefits of Compute Virtualization

Compute virtualization offers the following benefits:

• Server Consolidation: Compute virtualization

enables running multiple virtual machines on a
physical server. This reduces the requirement for
physical servers.

• Isolation: While virtual machines can share the

physical resources of a physical machine, they remain
completely isolated from each other as if they were
separate physical machines. If, for example, there are
four virtual machines on a single physical machine
and one of the virtual machines crashes, the other
three virtual machines remain unaffected.

• Encapsulation: A virtual machine is a package that

contains a complete set of virtual hardware resources,
an operating system, and applications. Encapsulation
makes virtual machines portable and easy to manage.
For example, a virtual machine can be moved and
copied from one location to another just like a file.

• Hardware Independence: A virtual machine is

configured with virtual components such as CPU,
memory, network card, and SCSI controller that are

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 completely independent of the underlying physical
hardware. This gives the freedom to move a virtual
machine from one x86 machine to another without
making any change to the device drivers, operating
system, or applications.

• Reduced Cost: Compute virtualization reduces the

following direct costs:

• Space (leased or owned) for physical machines,

power and cooling, Hardware (including
switches and Fibre Channel HBA), and annual
maintenance

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Virtual Machine

From a user’s perspective, a virtual machine (VM) is a

logical compute system just like a physical machine that runs
an operating system (OS) and application. An operating
system that runs within a virtual machine is called a guest
operating system. At a time, only one supported guest
operating system can run on a single virtual machine. Each
virtual machine is independent and can run its own
application.

From a hypervisor perspective, a virtual machine is a

discrete set of files. The set includes a configuration file,
virtual disk files, virtual BIOS file, virtual machine swap
file, and a log file.

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Virtual Machine Files

• Virtual BIOS file: It stores the state of virtual

machine BIOS.

• Virtual Machine swap file: It is the paging file of a

virtual machine, which backs up the virtual machine
RAM contents. This file exists only when the virtual
machine is running.

• Virtual disk file: It stores the contents in the disk

drive of the virtual machine. A virtual disk file
appears as a physical disk drive to the virtual machine.
A virtual machine can have multiple virtual disk files.
Each virtual disk file appears like a separate disk
drive.

• Log file: This file keeps a log of virtual machine

activities. This file may be useful in troubleshooting
if a problem is encountered.

• Configuration file: It stores the configuration

information chosen during creating virtual machines.
This includes information such as: virtual machine
name, inventory location, guest operating system,
virtual disk parameters, number of CPUs and memory
sizes, number of adaptors and associated MAC

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 addresses, the networks to which the network adapters
connect, SCSI controller type, and the disk type.

Virtual Machine Hardware

A virtual machine uses a virtual hardware. Each guest

operating system sees the hardware devices as if they were
physical and owned by them. All virtual machines have
standardized hardware. Standardized hardware makes
virtual machine portable across physical machines.

Virtual machine can be configured with a virtual CPU,

memory, and other virtual hardware devices such as virtual
hard disk, virtual Ethernet cards, virtual CD/DVD drives,

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virtual floppy drives, USB controllers, and SCSI controllers.
These components can be added while creating a new virtual
machine or when required. In the current implementation of
hypervisors, not all devices are available to add and
configure; for example, video devices cannot be added, but
the available video device can be configured.

Virtual Machine Console

A virtual machine (VM) console provides the mouse,

keyboard, and screen functionalities. To install an operating
system (OS), a virtual machine console is used. The virtual
machine console allows access to the BIOS of the virtual
machine. It offers the ability to power the virtual machine
on/off and to reset it.

The virtual machine console is normally not used to

connect to the virtual machine for daily tasks. It is used for
tasks such as virtual hardware configuration and
troubleshooting issues.

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